Chinese Fable Stories - Illustrated Edition

Author: Wang Yan (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-02-01
Features: The term "fable" first appeared in the Zhuangzi in China. From the pre-Qin period to the present day, fable creation in China has never ceased. This literary work, which uses storytelling to illustrate a moral (the story is its shell, the moral is its soul), has attracted attention with its unique style and remarkable achievements. The vast and diverse fables either use natural phenomena or human activities as metaphors; or employ the sound of strings to express an understanding of certain social phenomena; or use other means of allegory to convey the appreciation, criticism, and satire of different human virtues, imbuing them with profound educational, admonitory, and cautionary significance. The protagonists of fables can be characters, animals, or non-living objects. Fables often use symbolic metaphors, particularly personification, to draw parallels between the past and the present, the small and the large, this and that, and objects and people. They some principles or ideas that are difficult for people to understand or accept into popular and concrete stories, embedding the functions of satire and metaphor in these meaningful, thought-provoking, and inspiring stories. They express ideas with wisdom yet remain sincere and pure, blending profound philosophy, complex emotions, rich life experiences, and meticulous insights into human life within lively and engaging stories. These fables offer spiritual enlightenment and aesthetic enjoyment due to their unique ideological influence and artistic penetration. The fables collected and selected in this book are those from different periods, regions, and ethnic groups in China, aiming to present the main fables from different fable systems to readers in a unified format.